Being English i was a little confused at first but then remembered that this is an american site.

I have always wondered why the Americans do the date this way, seems very odd not to have it in order.

For example in the UK it is

days . months . years

which makes sense as the day changes most often and it is the one that is needed to be checked most often so it is at the front for quick access. Also it is broken down by size, small, medium, large again makes sense. So why do the Americans have it the other way around.

For example when ever someone says 9/11 i think of the 9th of Novemeber.

(Luckily) our terrorist even was on the 7th of July which is the same either way around 7/7 but then again Americans probably do not talk about this.

Staff Member

Being English i was a little confused at first but then remembered that this is an american site.

I have always wondered why the Americans do the date this way, seems very odd not to have it in order.

Click to expand...

My understanding is that the Brits started it. At some point during the 1800s, the UK switched from the d/m/y format to the m/d/y format, and thr US followed suit. But for some reason, the Brits switched back soon after, while the US maintained the m/d/y format. I don't know the exact dates or the reasons for the switches..."Blame the Brits" is all that sticks in my head.

Being English i was a little confused at first but then remembered that this is an american site.

I have always wondered why the Americans do the date this way, seems very odd not to have it in order.

For example in the UK it is

days . months . years

which makes sense as the day changes most often and it is the one that is needed to be checked most often so it is at the front for quick access. Also it is broken down by size, small, medium, large again makes sense. So why do the Americans have it the other way around.

For example when ever someone says 9/11 i think of the 9th of Novemeber.

(Luckily) our terrorist even was on the 7th of July which is the same either way around 7/7 but then again Americans probably do not talk about this.

Click to expand...

We just like being different. With everything from not using the metric system to having horses at the track run counter-clockwise to your clockwise.

Staff Member

There may well have been more users looking at the feed but it wasnt part of the forums (i think) so it wouldn't have been taken into account in this instance.

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Yes, correct - main site visitors aren't included in the forum statistics. We'll post stats for MacRumorsLive in the next few days but they will certainly be many times higher than the forum 'users online'.

Staff Member

My understanding is that the Brits started it. At some point during the 1800s, the UK switched from the d/m/y format to the m/d/y format, and thr US followed suit. But for some reason, the Brits switched back soon after, while the US maintained the m/d/y format.

Click to expand...

In the end, the Brits were smarter, that's all. Just as they are when they put their commas "outside quotations", which makes more sense.

Perhaps this is a bit off topic, but we have to discuss something while waiting for juicy statistics, right?

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